Fuel depletion characteristics of MA transmutation in PWR

Abstract

The minor actinide transmutation in PWR can change its fuel depletion characteristics distinctly. We simulate PWR reactor fuel depletion characteristics of minor actinide different admitting approaches on burnable poison rods for transmutation. Simulation results indicate that minor actinide introduction in water gaps of burnable poison rods and minor actinide replacement of burnable poison in the burnable poison rods cause some unfavorable impacts to the core lifetime, whereas minor actinide mixing with burnable poison shortens the core lifetime significantly. For the same minor actinide introduction amount, the impact to the fuel cycles of a thin layer minor actinide coating on PWR burnable poison rods is the least, whereas the impact to the fuel cycles of minor actinide mixing with burnable poison homogeneously is the greatest.When implementing minor actinide transmutation on PWR one needs to balance the effects on PWR fuel cycles and the reactivity coefficients, and then selects an appropriate minor actinide introduction approach on the PWR reactor core.